Word: fad
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Snowboarding. To traditionalists, the breezy fad is a clumsy intrusion on the sleek precision of downhill skiing, but to some 100,000 enthusiasts, many of them adolescent males, it is the coolest snow sport of the season. From Vermont to California, snowboarders are shredding the slopes on a cross between a surfboard and a ski, a 5-ft.-long, 10-in.-wide piece of laminated wood or fiber glass with fixed bindings that can easily strap around any sturdy boot. No poles needed. The newborn sport, like its cousins surfing and skateboarding, requires agility and a keen sense of balance...
...truly gone. No more innocuous fun--in the '80s, fun means the hard stuff. Cocaine, crack, jogging and worse. The Village people, one of the founding groups of disco, deserted to punk (a self-respecting musical from that wouldn't have them). Olivia Newton-John deserted to the '80s fad, phys-ed. She and the country took their energetic dance from the dance floor...
...free weights, and exercise bicycle and an ergometer have spurred interest in the Mather House weight room. Buonfiglio says the changes have brought people out of the woodwork; "the hard-body fad mixes with the yuppie health craze" at the weight room," he says...
...which often invested stones with powerful magic. Some other curious elements of the New Age faith include reincarnation, channeling (communing with souls in their afterlife) and psychic predictions. For not-so-New Agers, these prayer rocks are a way to update their Pet Rocks. To the skeptical, the burgeoning fad may give new meaning to the word stoned...
...medically dangerous? Yes. Fad diets are significant health risks. And some people are unable to pursue thinness in moderation and have been adversely affected by this social pressure...